Opera "Don Pasquale": content, video, interesting facts, history

G. Donizetti opera "Don Pasquale"

Can I write an immortal opera in about 10 days? Gaetano Donizetti proved that it is possible. Today "Don Pasquale"one of the twenty most popular Italian operas and performed annually in 150 theaters around the world.

Summary of the opera Donizetti Don Pasquale and many interesting facts about this work are on our page.

Summary of Dona Pasquale

The action takes place in the early 19th century in Rome.

Don Pasquale is looking forward to the arrival of his doctor, Doctor Malatesta, who promised to find him a bride. An elderly bachelor decided to get married, in order to deprive his nephew of his inheritance - he disobeyed his uncle, refusing to marry the rich lady whom he had looked after for him. Ernesto is deeply upset, because in the absence of money, he will not be able to connect his fate with the one he loves with Norina.

Malatesta comes to the rescue, he offers Norina to be called his sister Sophronia and to conclude a fake marriage with Don Pasquale with the help of a false notary. Norina will have to make the life of the old man unbearable, curing him of love dreams.

Ernesto is preparing to go on a long journey to indulge in grief from the impossibility of his dream to be with his beloved. Malatesta leads Norina-Sofronia to meet Don Pasquale. The old man is amazed at the beauty and carefully rehearsed in advance modesty of a young girl and without hesitation offers her hand and heart. Since the young lady does not mind, Malatesta immediately leads the notary, who is actually his cousin Carlito. Ernesto suddenly appeared, almost breaking the planned course of events, but Malatesta has time to explain to him what is happening, and Ernesto even agrees to become a witness at this wedding. The notary declares the couple husband and wife, and immediately thereafter there is no trace of the meekness of Sophronius. She is saucy to Don Pasquale, demands to hire a new servant and gives orders to buy expensive things in the house. Newly husband in horror from what is happening.

Days go by, and bills continue to come to Don Pasquale's home in an endless stream. Norina again tests the patience of her husband, saying that she is going to visit the theater. When he forbids her to go, she caustically remarks that it is time for an age-old spouse to sleep and, leaving, as if by chance, drops a note in which a certain gentleman appoints Sophronia to meet in the garden. Don Pasquale has a plan for revenge, he calls for help with Malatesta - more than anything, he now wants to get rid of his spouse. That would be to marry a nephew on Norin, to save at least some remnants of the state!

Ernesto and Norina in the twilight explain each other in love. As soon as the young man manages to hide, Don Pasquale appears, accompanied by a doctor. He begins to look for a spouse's lover, calls Ernesto and demands that he marry Norin. In the end, Malatesta explains the old man, what a joke with him played. Don Pasquale is not long angry, and then forgives and sincerely blesses the young.

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Interesting Facts

• "Don Pasquale" is often called the last opera. Donizetti. Formally, this is not so, since during the following year three more of his operas were released, and the work for the Paris Grand Opera, Don Sebastian Portuguese, became a farewell to the composer’s career. However, all the final works were a success, only vaguely reminiscent of the glory of the best creations of the master, and now almost not performed. Therefore, "Don Pasquale" can rightly be considered the last great opera by Donizetti.
• "Don Pasquale" - Donizetti's third most popular opera after "Love drink"and"Lucia di Lammermoor".

• By tradition, the heroes of opera buffa are based on the characters of the commedia dell'arte. Don Pasquale is the same Pantalone, Ernesto - Pierrot suffering from love, Malatesta - the intriguer Skapen, Norina - the cunning Columbine.
• The first performer of the role of Malatesta A. Tamburini played so often in performances with one of the most famous tenors of his time, Giovanni Roubini, that he even received the nickname Baritone Roubini. The first performers of the parties Ernesto and Norina, D. Mario and D. Grisi, were actual spouses. And their acquaintance happened while working on another opera Donizetti, "Lucrezia Borgia".

The best arias from the opera Don Pasquale

"Quel guardo il cavaliere" - Norina's cavatina (listen)

"Com'e gentil la notte" - Ernesto Serenade (listen)

"Bella siccome un angelo" - Malatesta's aria (listen)

History of the creation and productions of "Don Pasquale"

Another libretto written by Angelo Anelli, "Sir Marcantonio", became the fundamental basis of the libretto of this wonderful opera. Donizetti He worked on the text in collaboration with Giovanni Ruffini. The latter, however, refused to put his name on the poster due to the fact that the composer too actively interfered in the process of creating the libretto and, by Ruffini’s own expression, literally “paralyzed” his creative impulses. There are legends about the speed of writing "Don Pasquale". In various sources there are terms from 8 to 14 days. Even for Donizetti, who created his 74 operas in just 27 years, this is very fast. Obviously, the composer worked with special inspiration.

One of the reasons for such a creative uplift, perhaps, was the magnificent cast, announced by the Parisian Italien Theater in the early negotiations with the composer in September 1842. Julia Grizi was also appointed to the role of Norina, who also sang Elvira at the premiere of "Puritans" by V. Bellini. The leading male trio consisted of truly legendary performers: tenor Giovanni Mario (Ernesto), baritone Antonio Tamburini (Malatesta), and bass Luigi Lablasha, who shook the sophisticated European public in Riccardo's "Puritan", performed songs by F. Schubert written personally for him, and was known for both outstanding vocal and volume of his body. “Like a huge beetle, he wants to open his wings and fly away, but he cannot” - this was how Teofil Gautier described him in the wedding scene when full Don Pasquale was squeezing into his best clothes, sewed in days gone by.

However, the rehearsals of the performance were quite difficult. Initially, the musical material did not arouse enthusiasm among the management of the theater and the orchestra. Donizetti was sure of his brainchild, but he thought the production was doomed. Nevertheless, he continued to work on the performance and at the final rehearsal brought a new number for the tenor, created by him from early sketches, which became one of the most recognizable melodies of the opera - Ernesto's serenade.

The premiere was an unprecedented success. Critics have noted that Don Pasquale was the most outstanding work written for the Italien Theater. The public bled a few numbers, the singers and the maestro were repeatedly called upon to bow. The performance went continuously for almost three months. And thanks to the Viennese production of the same year, the opera was replenished with a new duet of Malatesta and Don Pasquale "Cheti, cheti, immantinente".

In Russia, Don Pasquale sounded on February 6, 1845, performed by the Imperial Italian Opera, and P. Viardo and A. Tamburini took part in the performance. Russian troupe first performed the opera in 1886 in Moscow. Today Donizetti's signature work is included in the repertoire of the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

Love old man

The composer and librettist combined in this work both elements of traditional opera buffa and serious, quite realistic scenes. Norina is not just a cheerful widow, she agrees to do much to achieve her goal - a wedding with Ernesto, and sometimes her actions are on the verge of abusive and cruel. And the fault of the unfortunate Don Pasquale is only that he is old.

Opera knows a lot of stories about elderly husbands and lovers. Sometimes they appear tragic characters, sometimes - comic or grotesque. King Mark in "Tristan and Isolde"and Hans Sachs in Wagner's Nuremberg Mastersinger, King Philip II in"Dona carlos"Verdi is old, sad and lonely. While in opera buffs by Pergolesi and Haydn before "Barber of seville"Rossini and Don Pasquale" Donizetti old people, embraced with passion, are mocked. Only young people have the right to sensuality. And when an elderly man, like Don Pasquale, falls in love, he becomes an object of fraud and irony. sometimes quite unceremoniously.These topics grow out of the traditional idea that an old but rich cavalier has more chances to marry a young girl than a young but poor lover.But actually such unions are rarely happy.

Donizetti managed to convey a realistic duality of the situation and genuine human emotions even within the framework of the chosen genre. Minor Farewell "It's over, Don Pasquale, you shouldn’t beat your head against the wall. I have nothing left in my life but to go and drown myself" is pronounced by the old man after Norina with hearts hurts him. She regrets her deed and realizes that she has gone too far. But even the happy ending cannot hide the fact that Don Pasquale's further fate is loneliness.

Music "Dona Pasquale" in the cinema

Selected opera tunes can be heard in the films:

• "Hannibal" television series, 2013-2015;
• "Farewell Message", 1991;
• Don Juan, 1970;
• Gayarre, 1959.

The enchanting productions of "Don Pasquale" were repeatedly screened:

• Performance "Metropolitan Opera" with John Del Carlo (Don Pasquale), Anna Netrebko (Norina), Matthew Polenzani (Ernesto), 2010.
• Performance of the Opera Zurich with Ruggero Raimondi, Isabel Rey, Juan Diego Flores, 2006.
• La Scala performance with Ferruccio Furlanetto, Nuccia Focili, Gregory Cunde, 1994.
• Performance "Metropolitan Opera" with Gabriel Baquier, Beverly Sills, Alfredo Kraus, 1979.
• Film opera by A. Barannikov with Mark Pertsovsky (sings by Georgy Abramov), Inna Leschinskaya (sings by Galina Sakharov), by Alexei Sheinin (sings by Anatoly Orfenov), 1973.

"Don Pasquale"is the reference work of the opera-buff genre and, in fact, the last outstanding work in it. This is a great example of comedy, which even such academic art as opera is subject to, and the phenomenal success of this work is a worthy tribute to the talent of its creator, maestro donizetti.